This invention relates generally to wheelchairs, both manual and motorized, and more specifically to means for securing such chairs in vehicles to ensure safe transport of the chair occupants.
In recent years society has become more and more conscious of the need for providing access for individuals who are not ambulatory for one reason or another to public as well as private and commercial facilities. There has been a dramatic improvement in the ability of such individuals to get out of their dwelling places and into the public. As part of this trend it has also become common to provide transportation for such individuals in their wheelchairs to sundry places, such as shopping malls, doctor's offices, concerts and the like. In order to ensure that such travel is done in a safe manner various wheelchair restraining systems have become available in the market place. Such systems include pin and cam lock types which utilize openings in the wheels of the chair to provide a positive lock. Another system uses a plurality of straps in order secure the wheelchair from several different directions. Still other systems incorporate structure permanently affixed to the chair as a part of the restraining mechanism cooperating with another structural part mounted in a particular vehicle. Due to the proliferation of wheelchair and motorized chairs of different types a need has developed to provide a restaining system which will accommodate a number of different chair types. It is an object of the invention to provide a universal restraining mechanism useful with a wide variety of wheelchair types including wheels having solid centers, wheels with spokes, spoked wheels having spoke guard coverings, smaller than normal wheels, pneumatic wheels, bicycle type wheels, power chairs, scooters, strollers and the like. It is yet another object to provide a system which is either semi or fully automatic in order to reduce the time and effort to properly restrain the chair in a vehicle and to help eliminate the possibility of human error. Another object is the provision of a system which will comply with the various safety codes and is adaptable to different wheelchair types without the use of specialized apparatus bolted or fixed to the chair itself so that it can be used with public transportation.